[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> The thing about poetry is that it is much more likely to be deeply
> entrenched in a set of assumptions than might a prose selection.
Why? Why isn't a prose selection as equally entrenched in a set
of assumptions?
Part of
> the problem is that poetry is an extreme in metaphor,
Not necessarily. "I am the grass, I cover all."
"I am one of passion's asses! Plagues on all these parish lasses!
"Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!"
Compare to: "As the lark ascends from its low bed on fluttering
wing, and salutes the morning skies; so Mr. Wordsworth's unpretending
Muse, in russet guise, scales the summits of reflection, while it makes
the earth its footstool and its home!" William Hazlitt.
which would
> probably get lost on the first translation.
They haven't so far. Besides, isn't the point to grapple and be
baffled by the previous person's text? And to make something
new of it?
Sally
--
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[log in to unmask]
"The gods have retractible claws."
from _The Gospel of Bastet_
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